Ladylike

ABOUT LADYLIKE

Ladylike is a feminist work which comments on sex, pleasure, consent and gender roles. Please note the work contains some scenes of a sexual nature.

Q: “Why did the woman cross the road?”

A: “Who cares, how did she get out of the kitchen is the important question!”

Themed around the slang word for woman as ‘chick’ or ‘hen’, multi-faceted dancer and choreographer Ella Mesma has created a masterpiece of provocative dance and absurdly comical theatre. Four wild women cross the roads of Hip-hop and Afro-Latin dance, clucking, pecking and ceremoniously undressing universal and timeless gender issues.

ABOUT THE CREATION

2015: Research and development for Ladylike began with research in Cuba, Brazil and New York with the Winston Churchill Travelling Scholarship (2015) and The Lisa Ullman Trust, as well as public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Yorkshire Dance through its Sketch programme for dance makers with a commitment to working in Yorkshire and the North of England and mentoring and additional Direction from Charlotte Vincent through the Bench Program and ADAD.

2016-2017: The production continued with support from crowd funding, residencies at Dance City, Richmix and with support from Sadler’s Wells. Ella Mesma and Company would like to thank all who have participated towards the research and the love, dedication, hard work and in kind support of company members, supporters and production team.

ABOUT THE WORK

The work can also be divided into sections which can be performed individually (described below):

Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes plus interval and entrance ‘installation’

As Audiences arrive: Four performers in the colours of the British/ Cuban flag morph between a sequence of emotionally charged gestures to an urban reggaeton beat.

LADYLIKE: Rumba: Choreographed by Yersin Guillen Rivas: Todo nace de la Rumba (Everything is born from Rumba)’ (The Black Roots of Salsa-Christian Liebich). Two dancers present the traditional Rumba styles Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia as another sets up her own provocative play pen: is it a circle for protection? Or will it become her cage?LADYLIKE: Tierra: The pack are hungry and dangerous. Are they wild, free, amazonian women? Or are they a figment of his imagination? LADYLIKE: Monologue 1: Oba: Why do you keep putting off writing about me?” It is the voice of a chicken that asks this.’ (Alice Walker (1988)). The showgirl makes her last dance. It begins with bravado. An alpha female, she reigns the roost… But she is also innocent, trusting and vulnerable, and her sacrifice is inevitable.EMC: LADYLIKE: Monologue 3: Chango: Are gender differences learned and cultural, or inherent to the fertilization of the egg? She breaks free from her cage in a solo of coming of age. Three mating rituals ensue but when she faces temptation, or her roost is threatened she can be hot-temperedand quick to pick a fight.

LADYLIKE: Monologue 4: Ochun: ‘Some women smile unnaturally so often that they start to suppress their natural emotions.’ Makoto Natsume. Two dancers perform the Rumba style Guaguanco: a dance between a cock and a hen. She is happy and joyful displaying her sensual movements. He distracts her with fancy footwork then impregnates her with his ‘Vacunao’. She blocks his advances in a game of flirtation, but no means no and she cannot stay silent.EMC: LADYLIKE: Guerreras: The wild women warriors cross the roads of Hip-hop and Afro-Latin dance, clucking, pecking and ceremoniously undressing global and timeless gender issues.